Sunday, February 25, 2018

R&B Singer/Songwriter Jayme Shaye has always exemplified the promising characteristics of a true artist. In our exclusive interview, the Los Angeles bred and Cincinnati led songstress share details about her highly anticipated debut album deToxic scheduled for release on March 3rd, her current single “Two Way St.”, writing process and much more…

Terrance: Talk a little about your upbringing in music and how you got your start.

Jayme Shaye: My father is a drummer, my grandfather is a saxophone player and my grandmother is a piano player so I’ve been around music and singing forever. I started writing song lyrics when I was about 13 and started recording when I was about 15 and I started to really take it serious when I was about 18 and ever since then I’ve just been in music and it’s been my life.

Terrance: How would you best describe your style of music?

Jayme Shaye: I’m really soulful and I have a neo-soul vibe to me, but I also have a diva type of attitude and look. My lyrics are straightforward to the point. I don’t sugarcoat and I’m definitely raw when it comes to that. I really don’t like to compare myself to people because I’m me and I don’t try to be like any other artist. I want to create my own lane, but if I have to pick it would have a Beyonce-Badu vibe.

Terrance: Can you explain your writing process when putting together a song?

Jayme Shaye: So I write exactly what I would say and sometimes I’m just able to rhyme it (laughs). When I write I will literally write down how I’m feeling, what I would say and I put a melody to it and it just comes like that.

Terrance: Give me some background on the current single you’re working with from your forthcoming debut album deToxic.

Jayme Shaye: My single right now is “Two Way St.” and basically what this song is about is how sometimes in a relationship one will never let the other get away with certain things they would do. Sometimes when you’re in a relationship there are things that your partner expect you to let fly but if you did it, it would never happen that way, it would be an issue and that’s kinda where I got the concept of the song from. It starts off with the line, “Naked in the kitchen, cooking breakfast for a n**** that’s probably cheating on me” (laughs). The song is definitely a true story. I was in a relationship where I was letting this man get away with things I know for a fact if I did it, it wouldn’t go like that. He wouldn’t have stayed as long as I did and that’s “Two Way St.”.

Terrance: How did you go about selecting the songs you felt were the perfect fit for the album?

Jayme Shaye: I think I had a total of 20 songs to choose from and I actually had a private listening party. It was me, my engineer, my manager, a couple of my close friends and I had some industry people who were there and they listened to all of the music and everyone in the room gave their opinions on it and I took all of those opinions and made the final cuts that way. It definitely wasn’t a decision I made alone. A lot of people were involved in it and I don’t ever want people to think that I’m a one man person because I’m not I have a team of people, who made this possible, so they definitely had helped.

Terrance: Are there any personal favorite songs on the album?

Jayme Shaye: I’m going to have to go with “Baby Mama” and “Reasons”. “Reasons” was the very first song I wrote for the project and that’s like the most emotional and heartfelt song because I kind of let everything out. “Baby Mama” is a really close and personal song as well.

Terrance: What do you want people to take away from the deToxic listening experience?

Jayme Shaye: Never lose yourself. I was getting ready to lose who I was as a person because of what I was going through at that particular time in 2017 and when I was writing I was getting myself back and that’s where deToxic came from, so I just want people, especially women to just love yourself and don’t take yourself for granted, know your worth and be strong.